To ask you to help the bees? 🐝

[DowntonCrabby]

Not really AIBU, more for traffic than a bossy demand.

I pledge to make my garden much more friendly this year for bees and other pollinators.

I have a lot of outdoor space at work that I can hopefully encourage more bees into too.

Anyone with me?

I've paid more attention to the new and butterfly friendly flowers when planning this years flowers. Also bought some winter pansy seeds. There's a spot behind the compost bin/down the side of the shed that is shady and damp and no one can get to it so perfect for anything that likes those conditions.

I'm also doing the bottle caps with water in, glued to a post for them.

We have a bug hotel.

Anything else I can do to help bees? I'm more than happy to delay mowing the grass

Don’t happy peonies (and rhododendrons and camellias) indicate acid soil? I think hydrangeas can tolerate different soils and their leaf/petal things change colour accordingly?

I’d read that @harebellsies

Ours comes out in blue, next door neighbour has a really lilac/purple one so I wasn’t sure if the soil could be that different.

Because of this thread I bought some bee bombs. Hope they like them!

Hydrangeas require the presence of aluminium salts for blueness - acidity makes the aluminium ions available to the plant so both factors are necessary. I think it varies a bit with the exact type too. Anyway, if you have blues then sounds like you have acid soil.

@DowntonCrabby i leave it flower and reseed itself about 3 times during the spring/summer/autumn. Sometimes more. Depends on weather.

Shady area is great for the cabbage for butterflies to lay eggs on. It also keeps them from doing it on other plants like gooseberry etc.
Everyone is providing plants for butterflies to feed off, but people usually forget they also need somewhere to lay eggs. 😉

We're lucky to have a large South facing garden,we bought the house for it.We have a bee hive and a wiod area.Everything we do in the garden is with wildlife in mind.We have several shrubs called Caryopteris, and it's blue flowers are smothered in honey and bumble bees from mid summer onwards .Several friends have planted one as they really are a magnet.
Great thread OP and lovely to know some people care.Cheers me up when I despair seeing my neighbours with their sterile box of paving and astroturf.

My bees adore the Deutzia. They are all over it for the time it blossoms. It must be a very old-fashioned plant because I never see them in other gardens.

Another favourite is a scented perennial geranium.

Place marking....im in op!

www.bbka.org.uk/Pages/FAQs/Category/asian-hornet-faqs

please look out for asian hornets and report them if u find one, ideally catching and putting it in the freezer. they have yellow legs and mainly black abdomens. Also look out in tree tops for their nests

they will eat bees and also cause harm to other useful insects

a scented perennial geranium.

I didn't know there were any scented ones - do you happen to know what it is, please?

www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/geranium-macrorrhizum/classid.2000004813/

Here it is. It's a lot in perfumery and aromatherapy.
It spreads and it's very easy to grow, and there are always some bees on it.

Yes I try planted wild flowers in ny garden from a packet mix they liked it. Bee population and types seemed to vary with different flowers.

Year before last they loved my lavendar this yewr not so much

Every year in spring I have a large black bumble bee who visits me in my garden. Sitting in my sun spot he comes up to my face, hovers for a while before leaving to look for pollen. I know it’s actually not the same bee because of their lifespan but I like to think it’s a passed on bee hive memory of a friendly human who plants for bees all year round. I try to have pollen available through all year flowering planting. Winter honeysuckle is one such plant and smells so fragrant. Bees love it and early warmth means they are looking for food before there are sources available.

Thanks busybodybee

Last week we went to the (doubly misnamed) Anglesey Abbey, which has a wonderful winter garden, incredibly fragrant - and there were a few bees. I wondered at the time if winter flowering plants are particularly fragrant because there's not many pollinators around so they need to advertise well.

Hey Downton! That's very kind - I'm strictly an amateur

A west facing border is quite versatile although I'm a bit challenged by the NE Scottish climate! Where are you based? My family's around Dundee/ Perthshire

I've linked a couple of articles. Gardener's World says to go for plants that like a sunny aspect or partial shade rather than full shade.

I have a smaller West-ish facing bed in my garden (SE) and it gets a lot of light. When the sun's shining it gets baked. Not sure how applicable that is north of the border

Are you looking to incorporate some shrubs or strictly low-growing perennials? I favour a good selection of small/medium (30-90cm tall) evergreen shrubs for height and winter interest, filled in with low growing and creeping perennials.

What's your front garden like, is there a lawn/ gravel/ hedge etc?

link

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txtbreaker such a lovely description. Reminds me to look out for the giant bumbleebees i see on the sunny conservatory door every spring, basking. Didnt see them last year so hope they are ok.

I'm in. My bees love the cotoneaster and it buzzes with bees when in flower. I never use pesticides or insecticides. Keep a rough patch down the bottom of the garden with a small clump of nettles mainly for butterflies but beneficial for bees.

Have lots of flowering plants and shrubs but not sure how many are best for bees.

Will read up now for more ways to give my visiting bees a welcome.

@GarethSouthgatesWaistcoat
Thanks for your detailed response! That's good to hear that they also like the winter flowering clematis.

My garden faces east - I think! We get the sun in the garden all day until about 5.30pm. The beds have the sun until the very end as well. I have an English lavender in there already which is doing great - the French lavender did not survive, also a peony from bulb which does grow each year, but is yet to produce any flowers.

My peony has never flowered either! I'm wondering whether to lift it slightly in case I planted it too deep.

French lavender looks great but rarely survives. I stick with English lavender now

We have several peonies that flower pretty well but I've never seen our bees on them. Too many petals I suspect!

Another idea is to saw some white clover on your lawn. It is one of the best honey / pollen plants, drought resistant and fixes nitrogen.

Love English lavender.
French lavender is a bit tender so won’t survive a hard winter and personally, I don’t think it looks very nice either.
It’s frilly little hats annoy me!

My dd is all about saving the bees now after reading this at school.

www.amazon.co.uk/How-Bee-Bren-MacDibble/dp/191064644X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=How+to+bee&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1550265138&sr=8-1

We have quite a large garden that was pretty neglected when we moved in 4 years ago. Lots and lots and brambles and prickly plants that we had to just cut down. We haven't had time to really do anything with the garden yet as been doing the house up and had 2 kids. But this year need to try sort it as need new patio area and fence then can sort plants and flowers out. We have a patch at the side of the house that isn't used and is a mess at the mo so won't to see if we could make it into a wild flower area. Need to look into what is good for bees. Like the idea of the little bee houses. Think my dd would like that as well.
We do have one mass of a plant that the bees love. Not sure what it is but will prob need to get rid of it so will replace with other plants that the bees like.